


what a wonderful world

by GoldenTruth813



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child - Thorne & Rowling
Genre: Boys In Love, Domestic Fluff, Established Relationship, Hand Jobs, Harry Potter Next Generation, Humor, Love Confessions, M/M, Sibling Bonding, Sweet Talk, albus accidently grows a beard, beared albus severus potter, scorpius is a little bit lumbersexual
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-03
Updated: 2019-03-03
Packaged: 2019-11-08 16:34:55
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,028
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17984717
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GoldenTruth813/pseuds/GoldenTruth813
Summary: After a fortnight spent camping with his siblings like muggles, Albus returns home with a beard. Scorpius doesn't mind one bit.





	what a wonderful world

**Author's Note:**

  * For [aibidil](https://archiveofourown.org/users/aibidil/gifts).



> Awhile back I swore I was going to write kinky bearded Albus smut. Of course this is me and instead of kinky it ended up a lot more sappy but its not my fault they're so in love.
> 
> Written as a very belated birthday gift for aibidil. Hope you like it! <3
> 
> Thank you so much whiskeyandwildflowers for the beta!

“Well that was fun,” James said brightly, attempting to shove the last of his supplies haphazardly into his rucksack. Unfortunately for him, more than half of his stuff refused to fit and was currently spread out on the grass in a pile. Albus was still of the private belief that Teddy had packed James’s backpack for him no matter how many times James claimed that wasn’t true. “Wasn’t it fun guys?” James asked when neither Albus nor Lil agreed with him.

“I’m not sure _fun_ is exactly the word I would use to describe it.” Albus did his best not to glower.

 _Miserable_ was a lot closer to the word Albus wanted to use to describe the last fortnight, but since the trip had meant so much to James—for reasons Albus still couldn’t fathom— he kept that thought to himself. Albus was dirtier than he’d been in his entire life. His socks were damp, he hadn’t had a good night sleep since they’d set off on this ridiculous camping excursion, and he was about ninety-four percent sure he might commit murder for a decent cup of tea and a bacon butty. Albus was fucking done.

Trust James to want a two-week camping trip with his siblings instead of a traditional stag do like a normal lad. Then again, James was anything but normal.

Albus’s list of reservations when James suggested the trip had been long, but James had looked so hopeful as he’d begged them for one last sibling trip before he got married next month. Albus had agreed because _how bad could it be_ , he’d thought. Well, that and Lily had agreed and the sight of James pouting at him had done Albus in. Not that he would ever give James the satisfaction of knowing how effective his puppy dog look was or he’d never hear the end of it.

Once Albus and Lily had agreed, James sprung what he delightfully called “one last little detail” with them. The trip was meant to be done without magic. Apparently James had watched some barmy survivalist show on the telly with Teddy recently and gotten it into his head that if muggles could do it, so could James— which apparently meant James’s siblings were roped into it as well.

A fortnight of camping like a muggle had been as awful as Albus had imagined. There was no running water, no expanding charms to make the inside of the tent roomier, no heating charms to boil the kettle, and no transfiguration charms for Albus to turn a stick into a razor when he realised he’d forgotten his.

“Yeah, it was more of an experience,” Lily said, eyeing them both from where she was sat under a tree eating her last packet of beef jerky and refusing to share.

“You two are both sticks in the mud,” James said as he picked up a small muggle compass, turning it over in his hands before shrugging and tossing it over his shoulder. “It was an adventure!”

“No, we’re realists. You know I love you, James, but even you have to admit that none of that went as planned,” Lily said, dumping the last of the jerky into her hands. To Albus’s surprise, she held it out towards him.

Albus didn’t hesitate, barely avoiding tripping over a tree root as he ran and snatched the handful of dehydrated beef out of Lily’s upturned palm and shoved it into his mouth. It was the closest thing to real food he’d had since they left which was one of the more depressing realities in Albus’s recent memory.

Lily snorted. “Thought you hated beef jerky, huh? What happened to the man who said he’d starve to death before eating my, and I quote, ‘weird excuse for nutrition’?”

Albus made a rude gesture in her direction as he chewed. And chewed. And chewed. Merlin, he didn’t understand Lily’s obsession with beef jerky. It was way too fucking salty and as tough as dragon hide. Eating it made Albus feel like he was consuming something meant for a blood ritual and not general human consumption. After what felt like ten years, but was probably closer to thirty seconds, he swallowed down the lump of macerated beef and wondered how long it would take to digest.

“That man is starving and has no pride left,” Albus grumbled once his mouth was empty. He eyed Lily’s bright purple sports bottle with the Hydrate or Die sticker on the side and wondered what were the odds of her sharing that too . Probably low, since on day one Albus had made the unfortunate mistake of teasing Lily for bringing a water filtering kit she’d purchased at Decathlon with her.

James looked up from the pile of shit he was sorting and shook his head. “You’re being dramatic, Albie. I fed you both. No need to act like I starved you.”

Albus snorted, eyes narrowing as he recalled the backpack full of so-called food James had packed. “Those packets of survival food you brought barely qualify as food, and if I didn’t love you so much I would have killed you myself and left you on the trail for a bear to eat.”

“Aw, you flatter me. I knew you loved me,” James said with a wink, focusing on the least important bit of Albus’s sentence. As usual. The fucker. He ignored the squawk of annoyance Albus emitted and turned back to rummaging in his pile. Albus mentally counted from one to ten and backwards again willing forth all his patience.

“There are no brown bears left in Britain,” Lily piped up unhelpfully. She twisted the lid off her sports bottle. “Human greed, overpopulation and refusal to combat climate change led to extinction of the species here ages ago along with the wrackspurts.”

Albus sighed, massaging the bridge of his nose. He loved his siblings. Really, he did. But two weeks alone with nothing but James loudly mooning over Teddy and insisting every single misstep and epic failure they encountered was in fact a chance for adventure, combined with Lily’s nihilistic musings on humanity’s effect on the native magical and muggle populations of Britain, were enough to make Albus want to fling himself off the nearest cliff. He missed Scorpius, who knew when silence was better than words and who would never try to feed him some horrific muggle freeze dried stroganoff with dehydrated fungi or talk him to death about deforestation while he was trying to take a piss in the forest.

“Aha!” James crowed a moment later, lifting up a baggie with three mismatched buttons. He haphazardly shoved everything else back in his rucksack before rising to a standing position.

“Those are the Portkeys?” Albus snapped, patience wearing thin. “You could’ve lost them and then we would have been stranded in the middle of nowhere forever!”

“Calm down you twat. I didn’t lose them did I?” James said, opening the small bag and pulling out two of the buttons. He walked over and plopped one into Lily’s hand and then moved to stand in front of Albus. “Here you go, sunshine.”

The button James handed him was small and bright yellow in the shape of a sun with a smiley face on it. Albus frowned.

“What, too cheerful for you?”

“Fuck you.”

“Merlin you need to get home to your better half and hope he rubs off on you. You’re crankier than a kneazle in heat.”

Albus closed his eyes and did his best not to scream. He knew it wasn’t James’s fault that every single thing he said was making Albus want to hex him. Then again, it wasn’t exactly Albus’s fault he was going through Scorpius withdrawal, was the literal definition of hangry, and was suffering from poor sleep induced anger. Albus’s mood issues were kept in check by routine, good sleep, a relatively healthy diet, and Scorpius. The lack of any of those had left him feeling off center in ways not even he could’ve anticipated and all he wanted was to go home.

Albus forced open his eyes but unfortunately he was still in the middle of the fucking forest.

“What time will the Portkeys take us home?” Lily asked, pushing off the tree and holding her water bottle out to Albus. Albus exhaled slowly and mouthed a thank you..

James tilted his wrist and squinted at the watch their mum and dad had given him on his seventeenth birthday. “In exactly two minutes and thirteen seconds.”

“You’re so irresponsible! What if you hadn’t found the Portkeys in time?” Lily exclaimed. “You’re the oldest. So much for setting a good example for us.”

“That is completely unfair. Just because I’m the oldest doesn’t mean I’m automatically supposed to be the most mature. It’s an unfair societal expectation that I need to be more responsible than both of you just because I had the good luck to be born first. It’s as ridiculous as me assuming you should be nurturing just because you’re female, Lils. Maturity is a social construct.”

“You were talking to Scorpius before we left weren’t you?” Lily laughed, looking amused.

“Yes I was. You should really make an honest man out of him, Albie. You two have been together longer than me and Teddy and you’re not even engaged yet. What kind of example are you setting for Lily?”

“Lily has no desire for marriage or children so leave Lily out of it,” she interrupted, flipping James off.

“Marriage is—” Albus began but was immediately silenced by Lily and James talking over him.

“A hetero-normative social construct which neither of you need to validate your commitment to the wizarding world at large,” they finished together.

“I hate you both,” Albus bit out feeling surly. He hated when they finished his sentences.

“I,uh, thank you,” James said unexpectedly. He looked uncharacteristically bashful. “For coming, I mean. I know it wasn’t really either of you guys’ idea of a good time but it means a lot that you were willing to do this with me. I know it didn’t go as smoothly as I promised.” Lily made a derisive noise and James ducked his head and smiled. “Alright fine, most of the trip was a fucking disaster but...we were together and it was fun, yeah?”

“I guess,” Albus grudgingly offered, somehow unwilling to make James feel bad. There’d been a whole lot of horrifically awful moments, but there’d been more than a few fun ones too which had reminded Albus why Lily and James were not only his siblings but his friends, even if he was sick to death of the sight of their faces.

“Yeah,” Lily agreed, moving to stand in between Albus and James and throw an arm around each of them. “It wasn’t a complete shit show.”

Lily and James turned both their eyes on Albus.

“Don’t even think about it,” Albus threatened.

Lily smirked right as James laughed and before Albus knew it, he was sandwiched in between them in a crushing hug. “Full offense, but I better not see either of your ugly mugs for the next week! I’m locking the Floo!” Albus yelled into James’s armpit trying and failing to dislodge the death grip he currently had on Albus.

“Teddy—” but whatever it was James was going to say was cut off when Albus’s Portkey activated.

There was an uncomfortable tug around his navel before the entire world spun on its axis. Albus slammed his eyes shut and stumbled forward as his feet hit solid ground.

Home.

He was home.

“Scorpius?” Albus shouted, dropping his backpack beside the sofa. There was no answer. He tried again and again but still no answer. With a frown on his face Albus poked around their flat, smiling to himself when he walked into the kitchen and found a half-full cup of tea sitting at the kitchen table beside a headless chocolate frog, an empty packet of buttons, and a crumb covered plate from what Albus could only assume had at one point been a slice of cake. Albus’s chest ached as he thought of Scorpius puttering around their flat alone eating like a five-year-old who’d been allowed to stay up past his bedtime instead of the twenty-two-year-old grown man he was. Scorpius was an absolute travesty in the kitchen and Albus could well image in his absence Scorpius had been living on sweets and takeaway.

Not that Albus was one to judge. When Scorpius had gone away for a conference a few months prior, Albus had most definitely lived on pizza, cold cereal, and whatever marvel Teddy cooked up when Albus inevitably ended up there without invitation.

“Where are you, Scor?” Albus muttered to himself as he reached out and pressed the pad of his finger against the fine bone china. It was still hot. Albus smiled as he lifted it up and took a drink. It wasn’t the basic PG Tips that Albus preferred, just like his dad—a fact which neither of his siblings would shut up about any chance they got. Instead, it was some kind of white tea that tasted like a bouquet of flowers. Likely something Scorpius had owl ordered while he was away. It was horrible and yet Albus took another sip as he walked out of the kitchen and towards their bedroom, unable to stop wondering if the tea would taste better on Scorpius’s lips.

Fuck he missed Scorpius.

Slowly, Albus pushed open the bedroom door expecting to see a familiar head of blond hair and hoping not to startle him. Instead, the room was unoccupied though the lamp on the side table had been left on, and Scorpius’s favorite pair of sweatpants were tossed over the end of their bed along with Albus’s favorite Slytherin hoodie almost as if Scorpius had pulled the clothes off in a hurry. It was completely unlike him to disrobe without folding the clothing and either putting it back in the wardrobe or putting it in the dirty clothes bin.

After one last sip of Scorpius’s tea, Albus deposited it on the top of the chest of drawers. It wasn’t until he took a few steps closer to the bed that he noticed the piece of parchment on the bedside table.

_Albus,_

_Sorry I’m gone but St Mungo’s firecalled and needed a consult on the Draught of Peace because of the paper I published last month in the Quibbler. I should be home by half past four though and I’ll bring takeaway from the place around the corner of St Mungo’s with the extra spicy curry you like so much._

_Forever Yours,  
Scorpius_

_P.S. I missed you._

_P.P.S. Yes I’ll buy extra naan._

A smiled pulled at the corner of Albus’s mouth as he rubbed his thumb across the all too familiar swirl of Scorpius’s handwriting. He spared a glance at the clock on the side table and saw that it was only a quarter to three. It was then that he looked down at his muck covered Converse and realised he looked like something the kneazle dragged in. He lifted his shoulder and smelled then shuddered. Fuck, he smelled like the inside of Greenhouse Five on fertilizing day.

Albus needed a fucking shower. Maybe it was a good thing Scorpius wasn’t home to see Albus looking—and smelling—like death regurgitated.

An hour later, Albus was blissfully clean from the top of his head to the tips of his toes. He’d washed his hair twice—fucking untamable Potter hair—and been able to dry off with a clean towel like a civilised human being instead of being made to air dry in the fucking sun like a sheet hung out to dry in the garden.

Albus had never thought of himself as someone who cared too much about his appearance or spent too long on any kind of personal care routine, but after two weeks without running water or magic, he was ready to admit, at least to himself, that he might possibly have been in denial about his affinity for nice things.

A fortnight of washing up in streams with a generic tube of soap James had brought and having to let his hair dry full of leaves and twigs had made Albus appreciate the custom blended body wash and shampoo Scorpius had made for him, even though Albus perpetually insisted he didn’t need a PH balanced shampoo for his dry scalp or an herbal infused body wash that made him smell like an apothecary. He’d also missed the fancy skin softening cream, which was technically Scorpius’s, but which Albus used daily because it helped ensure his knuckles didn’t crack from dry skin in the winter. He missed the heated floor and towel rack in his and Scorpius’s bathroom which his dad had convinced them to have installed when they bought the flat last year even though Albus grumbled about the expense the entire time.

He’d missed having a double-headed showerhead with never ending hot water and freshly laundered fluffy green towels piled high for the taking when he got out. Towels that were plush and warm against his skin as he dried off, because even if Albus insisted he didn’t care what the thread count of the towels were, Scorpius had been used to the best and insisted on it for Albus too.

Somewhere along the line, Albus had gone from a teenage boy who’d used the same bar of Boots soap on his head as he did his arse, to using fifty Galleon custom shampoo and ethically sourced Egyptian cotton towels with double rolled hand sewn scalloped edges.

Albus was apparently a posh twat and didn’t know it.

 _Whatever_ , Albus thought. He was a grown man. Sort of. Most days he didn’t feel much like a real grown-up even if he constantly told his mum and dad that he was one whenever they tried to baby him.

It was his own business if he might’ve possibly become a little bit pampered and never realised it. Besides, it wasn’t as if he and Scorpius couldn’t afford it. Between Scorpius’s work with Potions and Albus’s freelance work as a photographer,they had more than enough expendable income and didn’t need to worry about things like their excessive spending habits on wizarding meal prep services or Scorpius’s addiction to owl order subscription services. Albus was pretty sure Scorpius didn’t _need_ a monthly heirloom tea box, a Teas of the World variety box, and a Wizarding Food From Abroad box. Then again, Albus probably didn’t need to have monthly subscription for a new pair of shoes every month, his Single Source Coffee of the Month Club, or his ridiculously expensive vinyl record club which sent original copies of out of print wizarding records.

Shaking his head to rid himself of the worry over whether he was becoming a hipster, Albus dropped his towel and pulled on Scorpius’s sweatpants. They were too long on him and hung down past his bare feet but they were impossibly soft and apparently as close to Scorpius as he was going to get until he came back home.

Next he went to the chest of drawers, digging around for his favourite t-shirt when the sound of Apparition startled him. Abandoning his search, Albus jogged out of the room and down the corridor into the kitchen to see Scorpius depositing a large bag of takeaway on the table.

“You’re home early,” Albus blurted out, not waiting for a Scorpius to turn around before he crossed the room and enveloped Scorpius in a bone-crushing hug from behind. Every bit of his tension and irritation from the last few weeks bled away as he closed his eyes and pressed his nose into Scorpius’s back. Even straight from St Mungos and smelling vaguely of the weird disinfectant spell they used, he still smelled like Scorpius and the scent was so familiar and comforting he clutched his fingers in Scorpius’s robe and let out an embarrassingly pathetic noise.

“I missed you too, Al,” Scorpius whispered with a laugh, somehow turning himself around in Albus’s koala like grip.

“You smell nice,” Scorpius murmured, pressing a kiss to the top of Albus’s head.

Albus laughed. “Be glad you didn’t smell me an hour ago.”

“That bad huh?” Scorpius asked rubbing his warm hands up and down Albus’s back.

Albus grunted out a response, his cock already responding to the familiar feeling of Scorpius’s lean, lanky body pressed against his own.

“Hungry?” Scorpius asked, rubbing his cheek against Albus’s hair.

Albus’s stomach grumbled, the smell of curry and fresh naan filling his nose. Fuck, it smelled amazing, and it felt like it’d been two years since he’d had anything decent to eat rather than two measly weeks. Yet despite his longing for the takeaway, there was something he wanted much more as he pressed himself against Scorpius letting his own hardness speak for him. Albus had thought for sure his ability to get hard within half a second of being near Scorpius would surely taper off as they got older but instead, the more he had of Scorpius, the more he wanted.

“Oh, so you’re hungry, just not for food,” Scorpius laughed, letting the tips of his fingers skim along the base of Albus’s spine. “I could put the food under a stasis—”

Albus didn’t let him finish, lifting his face from Scorpius’s shoulder to kiss him. Scorpius’s lips were soft and warm and Albus was already reading up to tangle his hands on Scorpius’s hair when Scorpius made a noise Albus didn’t think he’d ever heard and pulled out of the kiss.

“Beard!” Scorpius blurted out.

“Huh?” Albus mumbled.

“Beard,” Scorpius repeated, his hands reaching out to cup Albus’s cheeks as he stared at him. “You’ve got a _beard_.”

Albus reached up to rub his hand across his face. He wasn’t sure it technically counted as a beard since it wasn’t that long yet. Two weeks without shaving had left Albus looking a bit like a mountain man as James had called him. Albus had felt grumpy about the fact that he’d apparently inherited his dad’s propensity to have fast growing thick hair everywhere while James and Lily had taken after his mum.

“Forgot to pack my razor and James and Lily didn’t pack one since they’re apparently as hairless as a newborn Sphinx,” he grumbled trying not to be jealous about neither of them even needing a razor during the camping trip.

Scorpius dropped his hands from Albus’s cheeks and made another squeaking noise that Albus wasn’t entirely sure the meaning of.

“Beard,” Scorpius said again staring at Albus as if he’d never see him.

“I was gonna shave before you got home, sorry,” Albus said misinterpreting Scorpius’s behavior. Albus had got in the habit of shaving daily since he was sixteen, a habit he’d never once let fall wayside. At least until now. He couldn’t blame Scorpius for being surprised. He’d meant to shave it off as soon as he got out of the shower but his excitement at Scorpius being home early had overridden any plans.

His stomach flipped uncomfortably at the thought of Scorpius finding him unattractive. He knew it was ridiculous; he didn’t care what people thought about how he looked. But somehow the knowledge that something about him pleased Scorpius had always made Albus feel inexplicably happy.

“I can go shave now if you,” he said.

“Albus Severus Potter don’t you dare,” Scorpius said, surprising Albus with the force of the kiss that came next. Albus stumbled, hands flying out to grab ahold of Scorpius’s forearms as Scorpius backed him against the kitchen counter and kissed him.

“Fuck, Scor,” Albus mumbled, hands drifting to Scorpius chest as he opened his mouth to let Scorpius’s tongue slip inside.

Scorpius made another noise but this time it was one Albus knew well, a desperate and needy sound he usually made when he wanted Albus to touch him.

“Bedroom, now,” Scorpius said, stepping back from the kiss and grabbing Albus’s waistband to tug him towards the bedroom.

“So you like the beard then?” Albus laughed, stumbling along behind Scorpius.

“I’m not sure there are adequate words to describe my feelings right now,” Scorpius answered as he pushed the bedroom door open. He undid the buttons on his robe, tossing them to the floor before turning his eyes on Albus.

“You could try,” Albus breathed, his body tingling under Scorpius’s heady gaze.

“Or I could show you?” Scorpius said, asking it as if Albus would ever say no. As if every single thing Albus was didn’t belong to Scorpius in some way.

“Fuck,” Albus bit out, cock twitching as Scorpius undid the buttons on his crisp white shirt. Scorpius made undressing look like a sex act all it’s own, his long fingers expertly finessing the buttons as Albus chewed on the inside of his cheek and tried to show the rapid thumping of his heart at the knowledge that Scorpius fingers would be on him soon. Might even be inside him.

“Merlin, Albus, you look….you look like you but not you,” Scorpius said, his shirt falling from his shoulders and to the floor in a wrinkled heap.

“Like me and not like me huh?” Albus repeated with a grin. Fuck he’d missed Scorpius.

“Oh shut up, you can’t expect me to be eloquent when I haven’t seen you in a fortnight and you show up looking like some sort of wet dream. Like a,” Scorpius paused, hands on his trousers as he pursed his lips deep in thought, “like an erotic lumberjack.”

Albus choked out a laugh. “A lumberjack? Really?”

“What? You know I read a study once that said some people’s brains were hard-wired to be attracted to males who looked physically capable because of our caveman survival instincts. Besides you already know how much I like you in plaid so you can’t pretend to be that surprised.”

Albus shook his head as he closed the distance between them, pushing Scorpius’s hands away as he undid the buttons himself. “So what you’re telling me is that my beard turns you on because of caveman instincts?”

“Well, it’s science! I’m also possibly thinking about its uses for increased tactile sensation during lovemaking.”

“Right,” Albus huffed out, bending down to help Scorpius remove his trousers and pants before removing his own. When he looked up it was to see Scorpius staring at him with undisguised arousal and desire, and Albus’s stomach fluttered the same way it had the first time they’d done this nearly four years ago. He wasn’t sure he would ever get used to the way Scorpius looked at him.

“You’re staring,” Albus whispered, fingertips reaching out to trace across the flat of Scorpius’s stomach as he gently pushed him back to the bed.

Scorpius grinned the same boyish grin he’d had since he was eleven at Albus as he stroked his thumb over Albus’s hip and pulled him with him. “You’re nice to look at.”

“You flatterer,” Albus laughed. “You don’t need to do anything to get me into bed you know. I’m a sure thing.”

“I’m not trying to keep you in my bed, wanna keep you in my heart,” Scorpius countered, pulling Albus down with him as he tumbled back onto the duvet. Albus’s breath left his chest as he collapsed on top of Scorpius, moving to brace his knees on either side of Scorpius’s thighs as he bent down to mouth along the elegant expanse of Scorpius’s neck.

Scorpius made a soft noise of pleasure, his hands fisting in Albus’s hair and his neck arching.

“Oh Merlin,” Scorpius muttered as Albus rolled his hips, sucking hard on the hollow of Scorpius throat and delighting in the tiny shivers it earned him as he dragged his beard across the sensitive skin.

“You like it?” Albus mumbled against Scorpius’s shoulder, dragging his open mouth across the curve down to the collarbone. Beneath his ministrations, Scorpius’s impossibly delicate skin flushed red along the pathway Albus was creating.

“Yes,” Scorpius bit out, squeezing his eyes shut as he arched up. “Merlin, yes. Oh, Al, please.”

Albus didn’t need to ask please what, he knew exactly what Scorpius wanted as he mouthed his way across Scorpius’s pale chest and down his quivering stomach. He placed a kiss just to the side of his belly button before dragging his chin down the pale treasure trail feeling Scorpius’s cock against his throat.

Scorpius opened his eyes, lifting himself up onto his elbows to watch and Albus felt a hot blush threaten to spread across his cheeks. It didn’t seem to matter how many times he’d done this, it never got less arousing to know just how much Scorpius liked to look at him. In the beginning, it’d been so exciting just have a hand or mouth on a cock neither of them had cared much about technique or what it was they were really doing. Now though, well, now Albus had years of touching Scorpius beneath his belt and he knew exactly what he liked.

Knowing that it was he and he alone who knew the secrets behind what made Scorpius moan and writhe and gasp in pleasure made Albus feel ten feet tall and drunk on confidence.

“Albus, please,” Scorpius ground out, little splotches of red already dotting across his face.

“Fuck, I love you so much,” Albus whispered, kissing the top of his left thigh and playfully rubbing his cheek against the hollow. The drag of his facial hair against Scorpius’s skin felt entirely new, and he did it again delighting in noise Scorpius let out as his fists tightened in Albus’s hair.

Albus shivered. Scorpius rarely got handsy like that, but fuck if Albus didn’t love it when he did.

Sparing one last glance at Scorpius who was watching Albus with piercing intensity, he opened his mouth and took Scorpius cock down as far as it could go. He knew for Scorpius the most arousing thing wasn’t to be teased but to be worshiped as if Albus couldn’t get enough of his cock. Which wasn’t far off from the truth. The older he got the more Albus loved this bit, loved watching Scorpius’s stomach flutter and his chest heave as his eyes went scrunchy and his face went a bit pink. Albus knew he could be a bit of a selfish person sometimes, but fuck it all if the act of pleasing Scorpius for no other reason than because he wanted to make him feel good left Albus as turned on as if he were the one getting the blowjob.

“Oh my word,” Scorpius whimpered, “I can feel...fuck I can feel the beard when you suck to the base. It’s scratching the inside of my thighs and, oh my stars, this is the type of scenario they invented smelling salts for,” he groaned, dropping back onto the pillows and screwing his eyes shut then throwing his arm over his face.

Albus blinked, pulling off Scorpius’s cock to look down at him. “You want me to stop?”

“No!” Scorpius yelled, peeking out from beneath the crook of his elbow. “Just..I can’t look at you or I might come.”

Albus chest swelled with pride as he ducked his head. “S’alright. I don’t mind.”

“I’m not eighteen anymore! I can last more than three minutes.” There was an adorable indignance in Scorpius’s voice that had Albus looking up again.

“Kinda hot if you can’t though,” Albus confessed, dropping his head to mout at the taut skin just beside Scorpius’s cock. Scorpius let out a whine, watching Albus through slitted eyes.

Albus bit his bottom lip before cupping Scorpius’s cock slightly with his left hand and rubbing his cheek up and down the side his cock. The sound Scorpius made was unmistakably aroused and pulled on Albus’s hair hard.

“Shit, Scor,” Albus breathed. “You like that?”

Scorpius nodded, his eyes shut tightly and his stomach quivering. “Like everything about you.”

Albus groaned and had to resist the urge to rub himself against the mattress as he lifted his head and swallowed down Scorpius’s cock again. Two weeks without Scorpius. Two weeks without a moment alone to even wank. Albus was so hard already his cock ached.

He hummed as he bobbed and sucked, lifting his eyes in time to see Scorpius’s mouth as it fell open in a breathy moan.

“Oh, Merlin I love your mouth, love your hands. Sweet Merlin you have a nice mouth,” Scorpius babbled, fingers twitching in Albus’s hair.

Albus hollowed his cheeks and sucked harder, the tip of Scorpus’s cock bumping the back of his throat and his eyes watering as he took him in all the way. Scorpius gasped, hips coming up to slide his cock in just that bit deeper until Albus’s nose was smashed against the pale curls above Scorpius’s cock and he could feel his balls brush up against his chin.

Scorpius opened his mouth but nothing came out but a sharp inhale before he was coming. Albus rubbed his hands up and down Scorpius’s thighs as he sucked him dry, pressing a chaste kiss to his hip after he pulled off.

“You’ve killed me. Call the Aurors, there’s been a murder,” Scorpius said, turning his head to smile down at Albus.

Albus laughed, crawling up the bed to collapse beside Scorpius. He nuzzled his face against Scorpius’s bicep, grinning when Scorpius shivered.

“You really like it?”

“I like it as much as I like everything about you, which is to say a great deal,” Scorpius said, reaching out to run his knuckles across it. Albus swallowed, his arousal momentarily forgotten as he rolled onto his side to kiss Scorpius slow and languid pouring every bit of his love and affection for the other man into it. Scorpius sight into the kiss, tugging Albus on top of him and open his mouth as Albus deepened the kiss.

James had once teased Albus that he couldn’t function without Scorpius by his side. Lily had laughed and agreed, insisted they were too codependent. Albus knew the truth though. It wasn’t that he couldn’t live without Scorpius; it was that he didn’t want to.

Scorpius was everything. He was Albus’s confidant. His best friend. His lover. His shoulder to lean on. He was the calm voice helping Albus calm down or the first one reaching for his wand if he thought someone had wronged him. Scorpius who was kind and smart and determined and the most beautiful person Albus had ever known.

Albus knew exactly what life without Scorpius was like and while he absolutely could live without him, he knew he didn’t want to.

“I love you,” Albus extolled as he pulled out of the kiss, his hands shaking as he cupped the sides of Scorpius’s face. “I love you so much.”

“Oh,” Scorpius breathed, eyes bright. “I love you too.”

“No, you don’t understand,” Albus breathed, letting out a shuddering breath. “I love you. So much it’s hard to breathe sometimes. I wake up and can’t believe I get to spend my life with you. I look at you in the kitchen humming while you make tea or chewing on your bottom lip while you do the crosswords on our sofa and sometimes I have to go in the other room to compose myself because I don’t know how I got so lucky.”

“Shit, Al,” Scorpius whispered, his eyes watering.

Albus’s face warmed and he knew he was blushing and he didn’t care. It wasn’t that he was ever shy about telling Scorpius how loved he was. But this kind of sappy declaration was usually more Scorpius’s style not Albus’s. Somehow, spending two weeks with only James and Lily for company while listening to James moon on endlessly about marrying Teddy had left Albus with an ache in his chest that only Scorpius could fill.

“You know I want to spend my life with you right?” Albus asked, thumb stroking across Scorpius’s bottom lip. “My whole life. However long that might be. I want to make you so happy, Scor. I want to spend my life being happy with you.”

“Are you asking me to marry you?” Scorpius asked. His voice tinged with confusion.

Albus shook his head. He and Scorpius had talked about this. So many times. He knew without a shred of doubt that he and Scorpius were on the same page about not wanting to get legally bonded. He knew they didn’t need that type of public affirmation to solidify their commitment.

“No...I’m just...I love you,” Albus said again, wishing that explained it all. “I don’t want a wedding and I know you don’t. But that doesn’t mean I’m not absolutely sure that I want you forever.”

“So you’re un-proposing to me?” Scorpius asked, voice lighter this time as his hands slid down Albus’s chest to toy with the drawstring on the sweatpants.

“Yeah, yeah I am,” Albus whispered as Scorpius’s fingers slipped beneath the waistband of the sweatpants. “ _Scor_.”

“You want to spend forever with me, Albus? Want to fall asleep and wake up with me forever?” He asked, his knuckles skidding across Albus’s lower stomach before his long fingers wrapped themselves around Albus’s cock. Albus whimpered, shoving his face into Scorpius’s neck in a futile attempt to stave off the swell of emotions threatening to overwhelm him. “Wanna do everything with me forever?”

“Yes,” Albus uttered against Scorpius’s neck, his lips brushing across the flushed skin and dragging his tongue across the sweat damp skin.

“That’s good, because I want that too,” Scorpius murmured, his lips buried in Albus’s hair as Albus’s cock slid in and out of Scorpius’s deft hand. His strokes were confident and the sounds filthy as Albus bucked into his hand and panted hot and heavy into the curve of his shoulder. It was a stark contradiction to the impossibly sweet words he was speaking. “I want to do everything with you. I want to be there when you’re happy and when you’re sad. I want to be the only one who gets this, the only one who gets all of you.”

“You are,” Albus gasped, “it’s always been you. It’s always been you.”

Scorpius’s breath hitched and his strokes became erratic as he picked up the pace. Then Albus was lost in a haze of sensations and his world was reduced to the smell of Scorpius’s skin, the feel of all his bare skin beneath him and the heady way Scorpius touched him as if he knew exactly what Albus liked—because he did. Fuck, he did. Every single thing Albus liked he knew he liked because he and Scorpius had experimented together. Scorpius had been there for every single one of his firsts and was going to be there for the lasts as well.

Scorpius knew exactly how to turn his wrist at the upstroke to make Albus’s toes curl, knew when to tighten his grip, and knew when Albus was close enough that if he slid his thumb across the slit Albus’s eyes would roll in the back of his head. Scorpius knew every single thing about Albus.

And he liked him anyway, _Loved him._

Fuck.

Albus’s ears rang and his body flushed as he neared his release, thrusting down into Scorpius’s hand and coating the inside of the sweatpants. Scorpius stroked him through the entire thing, his free hand rubbing up and down Albus’s spine as he peppered the top of his head and then his forehead in kisses.

Albus came down slowly, huffing against Scorpius’s neck. It took him a good minute before he managed to dig his face out of its hiding spot, collapsing onto his stomach beside Scorpius and turning his head atop Scorpius’s outstretched arm to peer at him.

“Hi,” Albus whispered.

“Hello, lover.”

Albus laughed, turning his face down again and pressing a kiss to the juncture of Scorpius’s arm. “Fuck I missed you.”

“I missed you too,” Scorpius said softly, reaching a hand out to stroke through Albus’s hair. Albus tried and failed to hold in the sound of contentment, finally letting it slip free when Scorpius perfectly trimmed nails scratched across his scalp.

“So you like the beard, huh?” Albus asked, rolling his face to the side enough to squint one eye open at Scorpius but not enough to dislodge his hand.

“I’m pretty sure we definitely established that as a yes, but if you want to go another round I’m more than willing to demonstrate again.”

Albus nuzzled against Scorpius’s arm. “I need another shower.”

“Oh, we should have sex in the shower,” Scorpius said in the same tone of voice he might use if he were suggesting what to have for pudding. “I bet that beard would feel amazing wet.”

“I could be persuaded,” Albus laughed. “I was gonna shave you know but if you like it I could...I could keep it. Grow it out a bit more.”

He lifted his head to look at Scorpius trying to gauge his reaction.

“I’m happy with whatever you want. It’s your body, Al,” Scorpius answered. “Although if you’re asking my opinion, I think you’d look very distinguished.”

“A distinguished erotic lumberjack?” Albus snorted.

“What can I say, Malfoys have eclectic tastes. It’s in our blood to desire only the best and most unique,” he said seriously.

Albus bit his bottom lip as he stroked his fingers across the delicate arch of Scorpius’s collarbones.

“Hey, Al?” Scorpius murmured, “you know your beard will really piss off James. He’s still sour Teddy mistook his attempt to grow a moustache as a spell gone wrong.”

Albus’s eye went wide. “Oh, Merlin I love you so much,” Albus laughed, already imagining the million and one ways he would be able to rub in James’s inability to grow a beard. “You’re perfect you know that?”

Scorpius smiled, pulling Albus’s head down to rest on his chest. “I’m perfect for you, maybe. And you for me.”

“Yeah,” Albus agreed, pressing a kiss just above Scorpius heart. “Yeah, you are.”

**Author's Note:**

> Come find me on [Tumblr](https://www.tumblr.com/blog/goldentruth813)


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